Internet working is often perceived by outsiders to be very laid back and stress-free. This image is largely due to misconceived notions that web workers and freelancers lounge around the house all day and do a few hours work when they feel like it.

The reality is that web working can be stressful at times and blogging, whether it’s a hobby or a career, is no exception.

Deadlines, demanding readers and writers block can have a crushing effect on any bloggers’ motivation and lead to stress. But with a little bit of calm planning and setting up systems to lighten the work load you could have a stress free blog in no time at all.

Automate to Eliminate

Writers want to write and bloggers want to blog. Fiddling with the innermost working of your blog on a daily basis will induce a lot of stress. The same goes for filtering SPAM, checking blog related Email and paying your staff (if you have any).

First things first. Use a good CMS. Chances are many of you bloggers out there already use Wordpress or Blogger.com. These have numerous tools built into them which can remove some of the more basic of tasks such as ridding your comments of SPAM and ensuring your blog posts are well formatted and presentable. Make good use of these to free up some ‘me time’.

If your blog has a revenue income from advertising or affiliates it may be worth going for big providers such as Google and Amazon. They provide great tools for blog owners which enable you to quickly tweak your ads and receive regular updates on your earnings. No fussing around required.

For tasks which cannot be dictated by a computer, why not pay someone else to do it? VAs - or Virtual Assistants - are becoming increasingly popular amongst freelancers and web workers as a way to automate their administrative tasks. Often located in East Asia, they are happy to work for a fraction of what a US - based VA might cost. They can deal with simple tasks ranging from bookkeeping to running your blog (Paying writers, SEO, Email etc…) all the way up to highly-skilled secretarial duties. For these highly skilled jobs, many prefer to pay the extra money for a qualified professional with a degree from a US institution to ensure satisfaction.

Time Management and Planning

It’s easy for blogging to creep into other aspects of your life in the same way other work can. It’s a creative exercises so it can be on your mind even when you’re not working. While there’s not much you can do to stop this entirely, you can lessen it to some extent by setting aside ‘blog time’. Depending on the size of your blog this could vary from a few hours a month to a few hours a day. Only work on your blog during the allotted time. No ‘checking up’ allowed!

Scheduling posts a month or so into the future is also a good idea and one I strongly recommend. It’s great when things tick along nicely but one bout of sickness, a computer failure or any reason you can’t be at your desk means instant stress at the thought of your blog suffering. By completing and scheduling posts way into the future you ensure a hic-up in your life doesn’t have to lead to too much stress.

Use Google’s Apps

I find that Google has the most comprehensive selection of apps to help Bloggers. GCal and Gmail are perhaps the most obvious as well as Google Docs to ensure you never lose an almost completed blog post due to a program crashing.

Google Alerts is also a great way to keep in touch with what’s going on in your niche and thus cut own on research time . Analytics, Trends and indeed Blogger itself are also highly recommended by this writer.

In summary, a stressed out blogger leads to a blog with content churned out for the sake of churning out content. The blog that lacks attitude and charisma. So chill out, relax and blog. Leave all that stressful stuff in the dust.

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Dean has 6 post(s) at Free Writing Center